Abstract

Execution as a form of punishment was codified as early as the Code of Hammurabi in the eighteenth century bc. Although many countries have abandoned the death penalty, there is an extensive history of state sponsored executions that utilized various methods. In the twentieth century alone executions were carried out through methods such as beheading, electrocution, hanging, lethal gas, lethal injection, shooting, and stoning. The transition from one method to the next has been motivated by issues such as economic savings, a search for a more humane method, efficiency, and even the promotion of a product (see the section on electrocution). Current discourse on the death penalty often centers on the current methods of execution. As of 2014, execution is a legal punishment in 32 states of the United States as well as for the US government and the US military with the majority using lethal injection.